Obama to Hold IRS Staff ‘Fully Accountable’

President Barack Obama responds to a question during a news conference with Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron in the East Room at the White House May 13.

President Barack Obama said Monday if any Internal Revenue Service staff targeted groups based on their political leanings, they would be held “fully accountable” for their actions.

“If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on, and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous,” Mr. Obama said, in his first public remarks on the issue. He made the remarks in a press conference with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron.

Mr. Obama added: “I’m not going to comment on their specific findings prematurely, but I can tell you that if you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and nonpartisan way, then that is outrageous, it is contrary to our traditions, and people have to be held accountable and it’s got to be fixed. So we’ll wait and see what exactly all the details and the facts are.”

Earlier, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said his committee would investigate IRS targeting of conservative tea-party groups, as the political fallout from the controversy grew. Also, the House Ways and Means Committee announced it will hold a hearing Friday to look into the allegations.

In a statement, Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) termed the IRS actions “an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public’s trust.” He said targeting groups for heightened scrutiny based on their political views is “intolerable.”

Mr. Baucus said he plans to review a soon-to-be-released inspector general’s report, but the IRS “should be prepared for a full investigation into this matter by the Senate Finance Committee.” He added that “the IRS will now be the ones put under additional scrutiny.”

Mr. Baucus’s comments were more significant than others because of his chairmanship of the Senate committee that oversees the IRS. But they were not much different in tone from others’, including many Democrats. Some congressional Democrats appeared eager to distance themselves from the scandal.

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, termed the IRS actions “unacceptable and un-American,” and called on President Barack Obama to “immediately condemn this attack on our values, find those individuals in his administration who are responsible and fire them.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) also condemned the agency’s actions. “The administration should take swift action to get to the bottom of this to ensure those responsible for misconduct are held accountable and establish appropriate safeguards to prevent this from ever happening again,” Mr. Kaine said.

Sen. Mark Warner, also a Virginia Democrat, said that a “quick and thorough investigation” should be carried out by the administration and that those found responsible for the “betrayal of the public trust” should be fired, becoming the first Democratic lawmaker to make such a call.

Republicans continued to hit the issue hard. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) called for the Treasury Secretary to demand the resignation of the current IRS commissioner. The current acting commissioner is Steven Miller.

Rep. Mike Turner (R., Ohio) said he would introduce legislation to make it a crime for an IRS employee to discriminate against an individual or group on the basis of protected rights such as speech and expression.

“The fact that this could occur with little to no corrective action against those who seek to silence their fellow citizens is unacceptable,” Mr. Turner said in a statement. “That’s why I’m taking immediate action and introducing this bill.”

He said in a release that IRS employees who discriminate against taxpayers now are subject to termination. Mr. Turner’s bill would increase the maximum penalty to a $5,000 fine, 5 years in prison, or both – the same maximum penalty for a cabinet-level official who directs an employee to take such action, he said.

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